I recently reformatted my computer and reinstalled Win 7 Ultimate x64 and was having problems with random programs that I was attempting to install from certain installation/exe packages, downloaded or otherwise (Winamp 2.91 as an example...I had to download the current version to install it which is 5.0+). Installation packages would simply cause the 'Stopped Working' troubleshooting dialog to popup, and the options available to troubleshoot the problem would simply close the dialog.
Simultaneously, I was unable to install Flash Player using the smaller downloader exe file from the Adobe site (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/) as I would doubleclick the file, select 'Run' in the 'Security Warning' dialog, and the installation package would crash, giving the same error above. Instead, I installed Flash using an old, stand-alone installation package (version 10) that I had backed up and it installed fine, however, sites like Youtube or other live streaming sites would immediately crash, asking me to update Flash. I found various sites stating that the solution was to disable 'Hardware Acceleration' which would fix the issue and it did somewhat, but there were still errors with some Flash-enabled sites (NHL.com's live stream of a game would only allow me to watch at the lowest bandwidth setting).
After many installations, uninstallations, reinstallations, reboots, etc., I was able to figure out that my problem was caused by UAC (User Accounts Control) built within Win 7: I had disabled UAC immediately after I reinstalled Windows as I had always had it disabled for I had no use for it and disliked the incessant popup messages.
After re-enabling UAC and rebooting, I was able to reinstall Flash using the official Adobe downloader and now I am able to normally use Flash Player on enabled sites.
Whether or not this is a problem caused by either Adobe or Microsoft, I wouldn't know, but it has seems to be rectified with this solution. This is after believing that my Firefox addons, such as NoScript and AdblockPlus were causing the problems I was having (initially probably exacerbating the problems...and annoying the hell out of me...but clearly not the root of the problems).
Hopefully this helps some people.
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